NEW EDITION:
CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY
By WILLIAM APPLEMAN WILLIAMS
With a new introduction by GREG GRANDIN
Published: 16 January 2012
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“One of the most original home-grown minds in American history. The welcome republication of THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY should make William Appleman Williams’ stature and foresight as an analyst of the basic patter of US history transparently evident.”
– Eric Hobsbawm
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“Williams was not the first historian to identify the United States as an empire, yet he was unique in linking domestic disquiet to a long history of expansion, which in his grandest formulation— THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY, reissued here on the fiftieth anni- versary of its publication—he traced back to beyond England’s Glorious Revolution, making him one of America’s most conse- quential dissident intellectuals. His early criticisms of contain- ment—Washington’s post–World War II efforts to isolate the Soviet Union and limit the spread of communism—nearly got him blacklisted (the manuscript of CONTOURS was subpoenaed by House Committee on UnAmerican Activities, perhaps the only work of interpretative history to have been so cited). They also got him labeled a moral relativist when in fact he was an ethical absolutist: what is good for the United States is a non-negotiable good for them. “And if all that the rumors of catastrophe mean,” he said on America’s bicentennial, “is that the barbarians will land at Plymouth Rock, I can only say that I will give over in peace. They would move us off dead center.” – GREG GRANDIN, from the introduction.
Greg Grandin is professor of history at New York University and a Guggenheim fellow. He is the award-winning author of EMPIRE’S WORKSHOP, THE LAST COLONIAL MASSACRE, WHO IS RIGOBERTA MENCHÚ?, THE BLOOD OF GUATEMALA, and the Pulitzer-shortlisted FORDLANDIA.
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Chosen by The Modern Library as one of the best one hundred nonfiction books of the twentieth century.
William Appleman Williams was one of America’s greatest critics of US imperialism. THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY, first published in 1961, reached back to seventeenth-century British history to argue that the relationship between liberalism and empire was in effect a grand compromise, with expansion abroad containing class and race tensions at home.
Williams was not the first historian to identify the United States as an imperial power, yet he was unique in linking domestic disquiet to the long history of American expansion, which he traced back to England’s Glorious Revolution. Reaching deep into thirteenth century British history to identify the motor contradictions of what eventually would become known as liberalism, Williams presents a wholly original interpretation of US history; one where the story of the United States is the story of capitalism.
Coming as it did before the political explosions of the 1960s, Williams’s message was a deeply heretical one, and yet the Modern Library ultimately chose Contours as one of the best 100 nonfiction books of the 20th Century. This fiftieth anniversary edition will introduce this magisterial work to a new readership, with a new introduction by Greg Grandin, one of today’s leading historians of US foreign policy.
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Praise for THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY:
“There is still—fifty years after its publication—no better critique of America liberalism and the contradictions of the ideology of individualism, no clearer analysis of the specificities of American empire. Greg Grandin’s preface is a terrific introduction to Williams’ thinking.”– Joan Wallach Scott
“It is hard to capture the impact of THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY on a generation of young historians in the 1960s, offering a model of history writing that took account of class forces, state power, and the role of ideas. In a way, the study of history has come full circle, back to examining the interconnections between domestic and international history. Back to Williams, in other words.”
– Eric Foner
“A very good book indeed ... It is quietly reasoned, beautifully ordered, and spirited as hell ... [It] is not a book for children, nostalgic or otherwise.”
– Loren Baritz, THE NATION
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A former president of the Organization of American Historians, William Appleman Williams taught for many years at the University of Wisconsin and Oregon State University. His books include THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY, THE TRAGEDY OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY, and EMPIRE AS A WAY OF LIFE.
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ISBN: 978 1 84467 774 0 / $29.95/£16.99/$33.50CAN / Paperback / 544 pages
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For more information about THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY, or to buy the book visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/1035-the-contours-of-american-history
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